Govt says no marital rape, survey shows 5.4% of married women are victims

Data from the National Health and Family Survey records marital rape even as Indian law has yet to criminalise it.

"Physically forced her to have sexual intercourse with him even when she did not want to.”

This is a category of spousal violence which the Indian government records data for. And according to the latest National Health and Family Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16, 5.4% women have experienced marital rape, under this category.

But while the data on marital rape in India exists, marital rape as a crime, “does not exist”.

“The form of sexual violence most commonly reported by women was that their husband used physical force to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to,” says the survey.

In fact, the existence